Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Alicyclobacillus variants, polynucleotides encoding the variants, methods of producing the variants, and methods of using the variants.
Description of the Related Art
Alpha-amylases have for many years been used in laundry where is it well-known that alpha-amylases have a beneficial effect in removal of starch containing stains.
WO95/26397 discloses alkaline Bacillus amylases having good wash performance measured at temperatures in the range of 30-60° C.
WO00/60060 and WO00/60058 discloses further bacterial alpha-amylases having good wash performance.
In recent years there has been a desire to reduce the temperature of the laundry in order to reduce the energy consumption. Lowering the temperature in laundry often means that the performance of the detergent composition and the enzyme is reduced and a lower wash performance is therefore obtained at low temperature. It is therefore desired to find new alpha-amylases having good wash performance at low temperature. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide alpha-amylases which have good wash performance at low temperature, such as at 15° C. It is another object to provide alpha-amylases which have improved wash performance in model detergent J (see below) compared to the above mentioned known alpha-amylases such as the alpha-amylase disclosed as SEQ ID NO: 2 in WO00/60060.